are mandated to have a commitment to diversity,
“including but not limited to age, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender iden-tity and expression, immigration status, marital sta-tus, political ideology, race, religion/spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status.”39The NASW Code of Ethics states, “Social workers should act to prevent and eliminate domination of, exploita-tion of, and discriminaexploita-tion against any person,
group, or class on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital sta-tus, political belief, religion, or mental or physical disability.”40
The social work profession holds that society has a responsibility to all of its members to provide security, acceptance, and satisfaction of basic cultural, social, and biological needs. Only when individuals’ basic needs are met is it possible for them to develop their
(profession of faith) is the sincere recitation of the twofold creed:“There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” (b) The salat (formal prayer) must be performed at fixed hours five times a day while facing toward the holy city of Mecca. (c) Almsgiving through the payment of zakat (“purification”) is regarded primarily as an act of worship and is the duty of sharing one’s wealth out of gratitude for God’s favor, according to the uses stated in the Quran. (d) There is a duty to fast (saum;
abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset) during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year. (e) The pilgrimage to Mecca is to be performed, if at all possible, at least once during one’s lifetime.
Shariah is the sacred law of Islam and applies to all aspects of life, not just religious practices. This sacred law is found in the Quran and the sunnah (the sayings and acts of Muhammad).
Buddhism
Buddhism originated in India about 2,500 years ago.
The religion derived from the teaching of Buddha (Siddharta Gautama). Buddha is regarded as one of a continuing series of enlightened beings.
Buddha was born the son of the rajah of the Sakya tribe in Kapilavastu, north of Benares. His personal name was Siddharta, but he was also known by his family name of Gautama. At about age 30, he left the luxuries of the court, his beautiful wife, and all earthly ambitions. He became an ascetic, as he practiced strict self-denial as a measure of per-sonal and spiritual discipline. After several years of severe austerities, he saw in meditation and con-templation the way to enlightenment. For the next four decades, he taught, gaining many followers and disciples. He died at Kusinagara in Oudh.
The teaching of Buddha is summarized in the four noble truths, the last of which asserts the
existence of a path leading to deliverance from the universal human experience of suffering. A central tenet of Buddhism is the law of karma, by which good and evil deeds result in appropriate rewards or punishments in this life or in a succession of rebirths. It is believed that the sum of a person’s actions is carried forward from one life to the next, leading to an improvement or deterioration in that person’s fate. Through a proper understanding of the law of karma, and by obedience to the right path, humans can break the chain of karma.
The Buddha’s path to deliverance is through morality (sila), meditation (samadhi ), and wisdom (panna). The goal is nirvana, which is the“blowing out” of the fires of all desires and the absorption of the self into the infinite. All Buddhas (“enlightened ones”) are greatly revered, with a place of special accordance being given to Gautama.
There are two main branches of Buddhism dat-ing from its earliest history. Theravada Buddhism adheres to the strict and narrow teachings of the early Buddhist writings; in this branch, salvation is possible for only the few who accept the severe dis-cipline and effort to achieve it. Mahayana Buddhism is more liberal and makes concessions to popular piety; it teaches that salvation is possible for every-one. It introduced the doctrine of the bodhisattva (or personal savior). A bodhisattva is one who has attained the enlightenment of a Buddha but chooses not to pass into nirvana and voluntarily remains in the world to help lesser beings attain enlightenment;
this view emphasizes charity toward others.
Mahayana Buddhism asserts that all living beings have the inner potential of Buddha nature. Buddha nature is a kind of spiritual embryo that holds out the promise to all people that they can eventually become Buddhas because they all have the potential for Buddhahood.
C
ASEE
XHIBIT3.7 (continued)
maximum potentials. Therefore, social workers have a special responsibility to protect and secure civil rights based on democratic principles and a moral responsi-bility to work toward eradicating discrimination for any reason. Clients’ civil rights need to be protected to preserve human dignity and self-respect.
In promoting social and economic justice for oppressed populations, social workers are expected to have an understanding of (1) the consequences and dynamics of social and economic injustice, including the forms of human oppression and dis-crimination, and (2) the impact of economic depriva-tion, discriminadepriva-tion, and oppression on populations-at-risk. Social workers have an ethical obligation to understand and appreciate human diversity. They are expected to have and use skills to promote social change that furthers the achievement of individual and collective social and economic justice.
In recent years the Council on Social Work Education has placed increased emphasis on human rights. For example, in Educational Policy the Council on Social Work Education (2015) states, “Service, social justice, the dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, human rights, and scientific inquiry are among the core values of social work.”41 Educational Policy (Council on Social Work Education, 2015) adds,
“Social workers understand that every person regard-less of position in society has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education. Social workers understand the global interconnections of oppression and human rights violations, and are knowledgeable about theories of human need and social justice and strategies to promote social and economic justice and human rights.”42
Reichert, however, has noted that“human rights”
has received very limited attention in the social work curriculum and in social work course materials and lectures.43Often, a human rights focus is“invisible” in the social work curriculum. Social work literature continually prefers the term“social justice” in analyz-ing core values relevant to the social work profession.
Social justice is an“ideal” in which all members of a society have the same opportunities, basic rights, obligations, and social benefits. Integral to this value, social workers have an obligation to engage in advo-cacy to confront institutional inequities, prejudice, discrimination, and oppression.
Human rights are conceived to be fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply
because she or he is a human being. Human rights are thus universal (applicable everywhere) and egalitarian (the same for everyone).
Reichert compares the concept of“human rights”
to the concept of“social justice”:
Human rights provide the social work profession with a global and contemporary set of guidelines, whereas social justice tends to be defined in vague terminology such as fairness versus unfairness or equality versus inequality.… This distinction gives human rights an authority that social justice lacks. Human rights can elicit discussion of com-mon issues by people from all walks of life and every corner of the world.44
What are basic“human rights”? A clear specifica-tion of basic human rights has not been agreed upon.
A key starting point in articulating such rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDR), developed by the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights in 1948. The human rights that were identified in this document are:
■ All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
■ Everyone is entitled to all of the rights in the UNDR regardless of any distinction.
■ The right to life, liberty, and the security of the person
■ Prohibition of slavery
■ Prohibition of torture
■ Right to recognition as a person before the law
■ All must be treated equally under the law.
■ Right to a remedy of any violation of these rights
■ Prohibition of arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile
■ Right to a fair trial
■ People shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
■ Right to freedom from arbitrary interference with private life
■ Right to freedom of movement
■ Right to seek asylum
■ Right to a nationality
■ Right to marry; marriage must be consented to by both parties; the family is entitled to protection from the state
■ Right to property
■ Right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
■ Right to freedom of opinion and expression
■ Right to freedom of assembly and association
■ Right to participate in the government of one’s country
■ Right to economic, social, and cultural rights necessary for dignity and free development of personality
■ Right to work and equitable compensation
■ Right to rest and leisure from work
■ Right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing, housing, and medical
■ Right to education
■ Right to participate in cultural activities and to share in scientific achievements
■ Right to a world order in which these rights can be realized
■ Each has duties to their community; rights shall be limited only in regards to respecting the rights of others.
■ None of the rights may be interpreted as allowing any action to destroy these rights.45
Every member nation of the UN has approved this Declaration. Yet it is not legally binding on any nation. Because this Declaration articulates human rights in somewhat vague terms, it is sometimes diffi-cult to determine when (or if) a country/government is violating basic human rights.
Most countries now recognize that safeguarding human rights has evolved into a major, worldwide goal. Yet identifying violations is currently an impre-cise science. It is common for a government to accuse other governments of violating human rights, while at the same time “overlooking” its own violations.
Reichert states:
The United States, compared to many other coun-tries, fails to fulfill its obligation to promote human rights for all.… For instance, our failure to provide adequate health care for children and all expectant mothers violates the same Universal Declaration of Human Rights that U.S. political leaders continu-ally call upon to denigrate China, Cuba, and Iraq, among other countries. The infant mortality rate is higher in the United States than in any other industrialized nation … and, within the U.S. itself, infant mortality rates are disparate among racial groups, with African-American infants suffering a mortality rate more than twice that of non-Hispanic whites.46
It is hoped that greater attention to articulating basic human rights will lead countries to initiate programs that safeguard such rights for all citizens.
Increased attention to articulating and protecting basic human rights has promise of being a key coun-tervailing force to facilitate curbing discrimination against people of color, women, people with disabil-ities, gays and lesbians, and other groups currently victimized by discrimination.